Rodo Nominto

(abbreviated form, Ronoto), a Japanese workers’ and peasants’ party founded in Osaka in March 1926. In October 1926, at the fourth plenum of the party’s central executive committee, a split developed in the leadership. Several organizations that were under the influence of rightist Social Democrats subsequently left the party. At the first congress of the Rodo Nominto, held on Dec. 12–14, 1926, Ikuo Oyama was elected party chairman. The party began publishing the newspaper Rodo nominto shimbun in January 1927.

During the elections to the prefectural assemblies in September and October 1927 and to the Diet in February 1928, the Rodo Nominto conducted a campaign of agitation against the Japanese militarists’ preparations for a war of aggression against such countries as the USSR and China and spoke out in favor of the political and economic interests of the workers and peasants. The Communist Party of Japan, which had been officially banned, actively cooperated with the Rodo Nominto, through which it maintained its ties with the masses. In the elections to the Diet in February 1928, the Rodo Nominto received 193,000 votes; it won two seats in the Diet. Fearful of the party’s growing influence, the Tanaka government banned it in April 1928.